The power in bodies which is supposed to draw them together; or the tendency or principle which inclines them to unite or cohere; called by Copernicus, appetence. – Encyc.
This power, principle or tendency in bodies to unite, is distinguished by philosophers into attraction of gravity or gravitation, which extends to a sensible distance, such as the tendency of the planets to the sun, or of a stone, when raised in the air, to fall to the earth, and of which kind is the attraction of magnetism, and of electricity; and into attraction of cohesion, or that tendency which is manifested between small particles of matter, at insensible distances, or near the point of contact, to unite them in coherence.
The attraction of gravity is supposed to be the great principle that confines the planets in their orbits. Its power or force is directly as the quantity of matter in a body, and inversely as the square of the distances of the attracting bodies. – Newton. Encyc.

The act of attracting; the effect of the principle of attraction.
Attraction may be performed by impulse or other means. Newton's Optics.

The power or act of alluring, drawing to, inviting or engaging; as, the attraction of beauty or eloquence.
Contiguous attraction is that which is exerted between minute particles or atoms, at insensible distances. When this principle unites particles of the same kind, it is called aggregation, or cohesion. When it operates on dissimilar particles, producing union, it is distinguished as heterogeneous, and called chimical attraction, or affinity.
Elective attraction, in chimistry, a variety of affinity. It is that power in substances, which elects or selects from a mixture those elements with which they have the strongest tendency to combine.

That which is attributed; that which is considered as belonging to, or inherent in; as, power and wisdom are attributes of the Supreme Being; or a quality determining something to be after a certain manner; as, extension is an attribute of body. – Encyc.

A thing belonging to another; an appendant; as the arms of a warrior. In painting and sculpture; a symbol of office or character, added to the principal figure; as, a club is the attribute of Hercules. – Encyc.